Objects of Exchange: Social and Material Transformation on the Late Nineteenth-Century Northwest Coast, edited by Aaron Glass
A BGC Focus Gallery Publication
Aaron Glass, editor
The late nineteenth century was a period of rapid colonization and dramatic change for the indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast of America. Objects of Exchange approaches the material culture of the period as visual evidence of shifting intercultural relations. Drawing on the collection of the American Museum of Natural History-from decorated clothing to containers, ceremonial regalia to trade goods-this book reveals the artistic traces of dynamic indigenous activity whereby objects were altered, repurposed, and adapted to meet the challenges of the time. Rather than treating the period as a climax of “traditional” art and culture, the authors suggest that we view its objects as witnesses to the dawn of an indigenous modernity. This remarkable book includes an intimate family portrait of the renowned Haida artist Charles Edenshaw; a discussion of the use of silver in economic and ceremonial contexts; and an exploration of the ways in which Tlingit women adapted beadwork to crest display as well as the tourist trade.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Susan Weber
Introduction
Aaron Glass
Essays
1. Objects of Exchange: Material Culture, Colonial Encounter, Indigenous Modernity
Aaron Glass
2. Dancing Our Stone Mask Out of Confinement: A Twenty-first-Century Tsimshian Epistemology
Mique'l Askren
3. Charles Edenshaw on the Colonial Frontier
Margaret B. Blackman
4. Bracelets of Exchange
Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse
5. Beadwork for Basketry in Nineteenth-Century Tlingit Alaska
Megan A. Smetzer
6. Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas: It looks like Manga
Judith Ostrowitz
Catalogue of the Exhibition
BGC Graduate Students with Aaron Glass
Relational Index for the Catalogue of the Exhibition
Commentaries
I. On the Relational Exhibition in Analog and Digital Media
Aaron Glass and Kimon Keramidas
II. What We Do: The Focus Gallery
Nina Stritzler-Levine
Maps
Bibliography
Index
About the Authors
Photographic Credits
Contributors
Aaron Glass
BGC Assistant Professor or Anthropology
Mique'l Askren
PhD candidate in art history at the Uiversity of British Columbia
Margaret Blackman
Professor Emerita of Anthropology at the College at Brockport, State University of New York
Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse
Art historian at the Bill Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Coast Art, Burke Museum
Kimon Keramidas
Assistant Director of the Digital Media Lab at the Bard Graduate Center
Judith Ostrowitz
Visual artist and independent art historian in New York City
Megan Smetzer
Independent art historian and lecturer at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Nina Stritzler-Levine
Chief Curator and Executive Editor of Gallery Publications at the Bard Graduate Center
Other Details
ISBN
9780300174427
Dimensions
8.7 x 7 x 0.6 in.
Page count
256 pages, 115 color illustrations
Publication date
February 2011
Binding
Paperback
